Friday, October 2, 2009
A Class Divided
One of my classmates told be about an interesting video to check out on YouTube, and that it was! In this video a teacher tries to help her students understand race relations and the strict divide between races. In doing this, she splits her classroom into brown eyes and blue eyes...the brown eyes were inferior and blue superior (similar to blacks and whites before civil war --in the south black slaves were property and in the north whites opposed slavery, but believed blacks should be put in a lower class and kept separate from whites). While watching this video I think about what an impact a lesson like this could have on children learning about this...it is one thing to read about things like Jim Crow laws provided for disenfranchisement, "whites only" signs, segregation in hospitals, separate schools for blacks and whites, but it is a whole different experience to actually live through it day after day...This seems great when you think about the importance of giving students several experiences to better understand the many explanations (laws and patterns to memorize) they are handed (with experiences children have a lesser chance of being left with isolated facts that seem to account for nothing in particular), but would this be allowed in schools today? Do you think lessons to this extreme should be allowed in schools today and in the future? Could lessons like this lead to misconception amongst the students? In the video the teacher is giving rationale for why the blue eye students get more privileges...she says things like, they are smarter...could this stick in a child's mind as being true? I found the video to be quite interesting, but I would like to see what everyone else thinks...
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This reminds me of a lesson we had on the Holocaust in 8th grade. Our teacher placed herself at the front of the room and pointed at each student telling them if they would live or die based on their physical qualities. Those who would live had to fit the Aryan race stereotype: blond hair, blue eyes. It was startling when she did it, but I'll never forget it. Doing something like the example you cited would be appropriate for younger children, and I think it would make an enormous impact. I think as long as you explain the context of the lesson, that in actuality they are all equal but for the lesson's objective the blue eyed children are regarded as more intelligent, the students would understand. I probably wouldn't do this with kids younger than 8.
ReplyDeleteIt is neat that you got to experience a similar lesson...i think it is extremely beneficial and leaves a huge impact if done properly. I also saw videos on youtube where something very similar was done only on adults so it has been done both ways.
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